Global Antisemitism Has Exploded Over the Last 10 Years
This is much worse than I anticipated.
Let’s consider some numbers released this month from three studies on the levels of hatred against the Jewish people around the world.
The first is the latest Global 100 survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). This study featured polling of more than 58,000 adults from 103 countries and territories, representing 94% of the global adult population. The ADL first conducted this poll back in 2014, and would periodically update various countries’ numbers every few years. Now, they’ve done the whole thing again.
Here’s the sledgehammer-to-the face number:
The ADL asks respondents about their views on 11 negative stereotypes about Jews. Anyone who says “definitely true” or “probably true” to at least six of the stereotypes counts as having “elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes.”
Or, as I prefer to put it—sans euphemisms—they’re a “fucking godless antisemite possessed by demons chewing on their soul.”
So 46% of the adult population around the world—2.2 billion human beings—embraces a poisonous ideology built on hatred for 15.7 million people.
How does this compare to when the ADL first conducted their survey in 2014?
Try this on for size:
Yes: In 10 years, the number of antisemites in the world went from just over a quarter of people to nearly half the global population.
But that’s just the beginning. Here are some more shockers from the study:
20% of respondents worldwide have not heard about the Holocaust
48% recognize the Holocaust’s historical accuracy, and that falls further to 39% among those 18-34.
50% of those younger than 35 embrace antisemitism, compared to 13% lower for respondents over 50.
40% of those under age 35 believe that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars” while it is 29% for those over 50.
23% support Hamas, which increases to 29% among those younger than 35.
Only 16% of those in the Middle East and North Africa and 23% in Sub-Saharan Africa recognize the historical accuracy of the Holocaust.
So how do these abstract feelings translate into the real world today?
If overall hate has increased, then shouldn’t that mean hate crimes would go up, too?
For that half of the story, we turn to research from the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel, which I wrote about on Monday for The Algemeiner. Here are the statistics of note to start chewing on:
There was a 340% increase in total antisemitic incidents worldwide in 2024 compared to 2022
The United States saw an increase of 288% over the totals of 2022
Canada rose by 562%
France surged by over 350%
The United Kingdom experienced a spike of 450% , with nearly 2,000 acts of antisemitism in the first half of 2024 alone
Chile’s antisemitic incidents increased 325%
South Africa increased by 185%
Australia saw a jump of 387%
15.5% of incidents included violence
Online antisemitism increased over 300%
Classical antisemitism made up 38.5% of reported content, Holocaust denial accounted for 21.1%, and anti-Zionist material comprised 15.4%.
What the hell is going on here?
A third study, which I wrote about on Thursday, gives an important clue.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany released its first-ever, eight-country “Index on Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness.” They surveyed people in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania.
Here are some of the most disturbing statistics from this research:
So how did this explosion of hate happen over the last 10 years?
I posit that there are five primary factors combining here:
We’re getting further away from the Holocaust. The Jews’ “holiday from history” - the fact that Jews have been living in a historically atypical time of safety since 1945, in which antisemitism has been socially unacceptable - is concluding as the world resets back to the more traditional high levels of antisemitism, which have been the norm for the last thousand years.
The internet and social media have made spreading antisemitism much more impactful, efficient, and accessible. Espionage agencies and terrorist groups have taken advantage of this reality, too.
COVID-19 gave antisemitism a huge boost as many people came to embrace conspiracy theories to explain what was happening, which inevitably led them to the original conspiracy theory of antisemitism.
Perhaps most obviously, the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack against Southern Israel poured gasoline on all of this.
And finally, perhaps most controversially, young people today are much more secular than older generations, leading to a deeper degree of moral confusion, as I wrote about last month in the context of the horrifying levels of apologetics for the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson:
And on this last point, regarding the God-shaped hole among so many young people today, the world witnessed yet another Neo-Nazi school shooting on Wednesday.
Solomon Henderson, 17, fired 10 shots in 17 seconds inside his high school cafeteria in Nashville. He murdered his classmate, Josselin Corea Escalante, before shooting himself. Before he started his attack, he live-streamed himself on the streaming site Kick.
A Hitler-praising manifesto believed to be written by Henderson states, “Candace Owens has influenced me above all each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights and her own views helped push me further and further into the belief of violence over the Jewish question.”
It’s worth keeping in mind: This whole school-shooter movement began with a Neo-Nazi. Columbine shooting mastermind Eric Harris was a neo-Nazi:
According to CNN, there were 83 school shootings in 2024.
The obvious question one asks when confronted by these numbers is, “Well, what can we do to fix this problem?”
And the good news is that there is a straightforward, simple answer to this, even if it’s just Step One:
Spread awareness of the seriousness of the problem and how fast it’s growing.
The start in solving any problem is simply recognizing that it exists. And we’re nowhere near there when it comes to this danger of global antisemitism.
Request free blue square pins from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Put a “We Stand with Israel” sign in your front yard. Share studies like those above with your friends and family. Speak out about why you’re not tolerating antisemites in mass media and popular culture, whether they be those on the far right, like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, or those on the far left, like Rashida Tlaib and Noam Chomsky. Boycott antisemitic entertainers like Mel Gibson and Kanye West. Stop using X.
But especially: Discover the great, unique cultures of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Pick up a Bible and discover the God of Israel. Meditate upon the four sacred letters of His name. Read the great Jewish wisdom of philosophers like Maimonides.
Because … well, do you want to know the hidden reason for this antisemitism?
Ultimately, people hate the Jews because they hate the God who chose them as His people to act as a light unto the nations.
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reposted to a bunch of platforms... those stats are shocking but not shocking
Excellent article about a disturbing and horrifying issue!